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Drawing Lessons from Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in Addressing Possible Brexit Implications

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Drawing Lessons from Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in Addressing Possible Brexit Implications View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by European Scientific Journal (European Scientific Institute) European Scientific Journal April 2017 /SPECIAL/ edition ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 Drawing Lessons from Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in Addressing Possible Brexit Implications Blanka Holigova, (PhDr.) Lecturer at the Government Office of the Slovak Republic, Slovakia Abstract It may appear there are hardly two other states that could be more different from each other than it is in the case of Czechoslovakia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, however in hindsight of the latest development after the Brexit referendum and before triggering the notorious Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty there could be some lessons drawn from the former development after the collapse of the Communist bloc setting into motion huge political changes in Europe from the perspective of dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Keywords: Czechoslovakia, United Kingdom, state, dissolution Introduction In my academic career, there are two states I look up to most: thanks to a huge political change, the first one does not exist anymore and the second one´s existence is currently being challenged as a result of another huge political change. The two states I am going to talk about are Czechoslovakia and the United Kingdom. Born in the early 80´s in Czechoslovakia and after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 removing the communist regime from power in the country I was able to watch the further development of political and cultural relations between two nations who shared a common state for almost 70 years (69; 75 respectively). I had the opportunity to see and experience immense political changes after the collapse of the Communist bloc resulting in dissolution of not only the Soviet Union itself, but another states of the bloc such as Yugoslavia and of course, Czechoslovakia. As an eager student of international relations interested in British politics and having visited Britain several times, I noticed some resemblance between Slovak and Scottish (English and Czech, respectively) attitudes and their very understanding of statehood which inspired my thoughts on the likelihood of dissolution of United Kingdom after Brexit presenting a big political shift affecting Europe and further international relations. 312 European Scientific Journal April 2017 /SPECIAL/ edition ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 At first, it may seem there are hardly two other states that could be more different from each other in any possible aspect one might consider, however there are intriguing similarities to be tracked down from the perspective of a possible political implication of Brexit such as the looming idea of splitting the UK. Spotting similarities and discrepancies between Czechoslovakia and the United Kingdom The size of Great Britain is almost twice as big as the territory of former Czechoslovakia, with rather flat-land areas of England and Wales in the south and mountainous Scotland in the north of the island. The geographical parallel with former Czechoslovakia may be seen in the fact that while the Czech territory is rather flat, Slovakia is more-less a mountainous country. Another analogy can be recognised in the size proportions of the territories. The size of England (along with Wales) with 151.174 km² is almost twice as large as Scottish territory of 80.077 km². The Czech Republic´s territory with 78.866 km² is also almost twice as sizeable as the territory of the Slovak Republic of 49.035 km². From the perspective of the religion, the English traditionally incline to Protestantism (such as the case of the Czechs) while in Scotland the religious tendencies are rather more rigorous (such as in the case of Slovakia). Although the size of English population is almost four times bigger than Czech population of ca. 10 million people, there are more than five million Slovaks, which is similar to the size of Scottish population of ca. 4.5 million people. Nevertheless, the main ambition of this essay is not to find as many similarities as possible, but to outline the complications and obstacles a unitary state joining diverse constituent nations may face after a significant political shift. By this shift I mean the results of Brexit referendum held in the UK on 23rd June 2016. Opting for leaving the EU the British set in motion several issues which had been only partially silenced after the 2014 Scottish independence referendum where Scotland chose to remain a part of the United Kingdom (so far). Although a monarchy, United Kingdom is a more than 200 year old unitary state with deep roots of democratic principles of its governance. It is said to be a country which disdains revolution as a means of change (perhaps with the exception of the last revolution that took place on its territory – the Industrial Revolution). Britain never experienced a totalitarian regime, neither some 20 years of foreign military occupation. There are four state- creating nations: the English, the Scottish, the Irish and the Welsh. In this essay, I will focus on the relationship between the English and the Scottish as the two biggest nations that are most determining the political development 313 European Scientific Journal April 2017 /SPECIAL/ edition ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 in their common state, although the English are being accused of too big a dominance in addressing important state matters. Czechoslovakia was a Central European republic founded on democratic principles in 1918, after the World War II being ruled for four decades by a communist regime which was overthrown by a non-violent (!) revolution that set in motion tremendous social and political changes resulting in the very cessation of the state. It was a union of two state- creating nations: Czechs and Slovaks. Of course, one shall not forget Moravians (who are politically / practically included in the Czech nation) and other ethnic groups living on its territory such as Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians and Jews. The Czechoslovak idea The ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks were first united in the seventh century in the so-called “Samo Empire” for some thirty years and later in the Great Moravia between the years 833 and 907. In the tenth century, the Czechs controlled western Slovakia for around thirty years, but by the eleventh century the Hungarians had conquered and annexed the whole territory of Slovakia, while the Czechs maintained their own principality of Bohemia (a kingdom since 1198). Although a part of Austro- Hungarian Empire, the Bohemian Kingdom officially ceased to exist in 1918 by transformation into the Czechoslovak Republic as a democratic state. In the past, both Czechs and Slovaks had to struggle against powerful neighbours (Germans in the case of the Czechs, Hungarians in the case of the Slovaks) and cultural contacts between Czechs and Slovaks arose again in the fifteenth century, with the campaigns of the Czech Hussite armies to Slovakia and in the seventeenth century, when Czech Protestants fled to Slovakia. Needless to say, since the late fourteenth century many representatives of Slovak intelligence studied at the Prague University. The Czechs and Slovaks were formally united from the fifteenth century until 1918, when Hungary (which then included Slovakia), Bohemia and other Central European states were ruled by the same (Habsburg) kings in Austro- Hungarian Empire. In practise, the two nations were treated differently by the ruling authorities in Vienna and Budapest. While the Czechs, belonging to the Austrian part of the Empire, were granted considerable cultural autonomy, the Slovaks were subject to rather harsh oppression from the Hungarian governance. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, Slovak intellectuals used written Czech as well as Slovak (and Latin, of course). Similarities of both languages resulted in both nations being able to understand each other without having to study one another´s language. Here lie the roots of the Czech-Slovak intercommunity. 314 European Scientific Journal April 2017 /SPECIAL/ edition ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 Radicalisation of the Czechs in Austria and the Slovaks in Hungary did not take place only along the Slavic line; there was also the question of national self-determination of the Czechs and Slovaks which had two separate dimensions: on one hand it was their differentiation from the Germans and the Hungarians, on the other hand it was their differentiation from one another. As the language difference is the easiest to spot when considering national specifications, it was the linguists who played immensely substantial role on the onset of Czech and Slovak revival. (Krejčí, 2000) Both the First Czecho-Slovak Republic founded in 1918 and its successor after the end of WWII the Czechoslovak Republic had the form of a unitary state until 1969 when it was formally declared a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic. However, there had always been an asymmetric relationship between the Czechs and Slovaks where the Slovaks often felt they were getting the short end of the stick and the Czechs felt being somewhat superior to and therefore inhibited by the Slovaks. Despite numerous political frictions, all in all, nevertheless, their co-existence in common state was never disrupted by any violent acts. From the very names such as Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovak Socialist Republic it is apparent that these were officially federal states, however in encounter with the very principle of a socialist rule there lies a paradox. This principle assumes the rule of the communist party above all other state authorities bringing about central decision-making authority and thus destroying the very idea of a federalist state where two or more equal states´ governances with specifically defined competences do not succumb to any higher authority – here being the Communist Party.
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